How Trunk was Born
by Coins In A Jar
Summary: The peculiar events leading to Bulma and Vegeta's first child.
1. Bad News

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**Disclaimer:**** I own nothing. At all. **

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**How Trunk was Born **

Vegeta felt bad. Bulma was hurting and he could do absolutely nothing to help her.

It had started an hour ago with dark fluid seeping from her belly. They had been about to make love when the pain began. She tried to hide it but he had sensed her discomfort as the pain escalated. She had screamed.

He had rushed her to the hospital where the doctors immediately took her in charge. He nearly fought to stay with her but didn't.

"Vegeta, don't you dare bruise anyone! The Mighty Prince of All Sayans may be bothered but the rest of the world doesn't care." Damn it. She still has spirit, thought Vegeta, allowing a weak grin to surface.

He'd been there for most of the night and still no news had escaped from the enclosed room in which Bulma had been taken to scream out her pain.

A light hand fell upon his shoulder. "Bulma?" Groggily, he turned to face a young face, entirely different from the one he longed to see, accompanied by a weary voice. "Your wife is very lucky sir. She just made it thought. We will need to keep her in observation for a few days but she will pull through."

Vegeta's voice is raw as he tentatively asks:

"What happened?

- Well, this may come as a shock sir, but your wife was pregnant. She contracted an infection in her womb, which caused her to miscarry. The baby was much too young. It ... it didn't make it. I'm sorry.

-You're sorry." A quiet voice. It gains a hysterical edge as all the stress and tension accumulated during the night fall from Vegeta's mind.

"You're sorry?! You don't even _know_ what you're talking about! You don't _care_! If _she_ dies you still get to go home and talk to your mate about it and get _praised_ for it! I bet you'll receive a big fat _bonus_ for it too! How _can_you care?"

The doctor hasn't moved. He waits there silently, wanting him to finish; and as his anxieties are subdued:

"That's enough sir. I know you have just suffered a very distressing event but I am afraid that it does _not_ entitle you to bite my head off in the middle of the night, forgetting in the process that other patients, including your wife, are trying to sleep." He pauses to continue in a less determined, more hesitant voice.

"I know exactlyhow you feel. I lost my first child in similar circumstances, with one major difference." Vegeta raises his head at these words and waits for him to go on.

"My wife didn't make it."

This gentle phrase is spoken with a tremor in his tone, a trembling of his lips. I instantaneously feel sorry for him, as well as dimly grateful that I am not the only one to suffer.

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**Edit :**** I changed a detail and played around with the tenses and persons, I'm still not happy with them though. Ah well.**

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	2. Home

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**This should have been updated much much earlier, but I got stuck in technicalities. Sorry. Hope you enjoy.**

« cough » is speaking and _**cough **_**is thinking.**

**Vegeta's POV.**

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I was allowed to see her the next day. A young nurse led me to her room. (Why do all nurses have to be young anyway?) Bulma was very quiet, subdued; had her spirit gone with the... the baby? The little thing she lost, never knowing she had it?

A week later Bulma was discharged. She looked pale and fragile in the morning air, as if she'd been bleed out. Silence was our companion for the ride home.

« Do you want some tea ?

- No.

- Is there anything I can do ?

- N-no. »

She went upstairs squeezing her coat to her chest. I followed her a few minutes later and found her sitting on our bed. She had a raw look on her face, her soul was stripped bare and the pain, the agony within surfaced for all to see. Dry sobs heaved out; she hadn't let go of the coat. I sit next to her and wonder what to do.

"Why?

- Uh?

- Why did this have to happen?"

She whispers her question. I can barely listen to it it hurt me so.

"I'd waited for this for so long. And now... now I have nothing left.

- I know."

She turns to me still sobbing. There is a new edge to her expression and I am glad of it. Anything is better than her desperate apathy.

"You knew?"

I pivot to fully face her:

"Knew what?

-That I was... I was..." She cannot bring herself to say it.

- Pregnant?"

She looks away.

"I didn't.

- You did.

- I didn't. I would have told you if I had."

Her sobbing stops and her voice lowers dangerously, the typical pre-storm signals. _Good_, I think, _get your anger out_._ Let's do this before it poisons you._

"You did.

- No." If I let her believe this now, I'll never get out of it. But I have to get her angry and this is the only way.

"The first time I knew was when you began to bleed.

- _Liar. _"

I say nothing, waiting for her to work herself up.

"You _knew_! Why didn't you _tell _me! Didn't you want it!?

- I did. I don't see why you are upsetting yourself.

- I've just discovered I've lost my first child and you _wonder why I am upset _? What kind of monster are you?!

- I understand that you are upset about this. But I don't see why you accuse me of knowing when I cannot possibly know what goes on inside your body.

- Chichi told me that Sayans can sense their children as foetuses.

- Not this early. "

She falls silent.

"The doctor said that you couldn't possibly have been pregnant for more than 4 or 5 weeks. The foetus would barely have had time to develop."

I can see her eyes growing misty.

"They didn't have time.

-They?

-Slip of the tongue. It didn't have time. To grow.

-_How dare you..._

-Huh?

-Our child was not a _thing! _ It was a _human being_, not a bloody _it_!

-Sorry.

-Like hell you are!"

She turns away from me and I can see an afternoon spend sulking in the close future. I raise and go get myself a cup of tea. It's funny how those little things get to you after a while.

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**I have made a personal dig on English people. Sorry chaps but your ability to inhale tea 10 times a day is rather a fascination of mine. **

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	3. Wrath of a Friend

**Sorry again for the ::glances at the dates:: VERY late update. I got stuck on what actually happened to Bulma. But now I know. **

**I don't own anything by the way. Except the plot, I own the plot. Hope you enjoy.**

**« cough » is speaking and **_**cough **_**is thinking.**

**Vegeta's POV.**

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Bulma was very quiet for the next two weeks. She didn't come outside and she didn't eat, not that I could see.

"Where is the food woman? I'm hungry.

- ...

- The fridge is empty. We need to go shopping.

- ...

- ...you look starved. When was the last time you ate?

- ..."

She didn't speak either. It was all I could do to keep the kitchen stocked up. Our diet reduced itself to takeout and anything that could be microwaved or eaten raw. She lost weight.

"Come on woman, you need to eat.

- ...

- Are you just going to starve yourself? Where is the bad-tempered survivor I first met gone?"

And even this implying of weakness couldn't get her out of her stupor. It was high time I did something. Besides, the gravity room broke yesterday and interrupted my training.

Which is how I find myself in front of Kakarot's door, praying that Chichi will answer. Triiiiing!

She doesn't.

"Vegeta, hello!

- Kakarot.

- Come on in! I haven't seen you in ages. Have you been avoiding me? How's Bulma?

- Is Chichi here?

- You ARE avoiding me! What's going on?

- Where is she?

- In the garden, but..."

I stride past him straight through the house and some French windows. Chichi is kneeling next to a flowerbed and attempting to remove some kind of plant from it with little success. Humans. She notices me when my shadow falls across her hands.

"Bloody little... Oh, hello Vegeta.

- Chichi, can you come with me?

- Oi! No waltzing off with my wife!

- Why? What's wrong? Is it Bulma?"

I nod and wonder how she knows.

"Has this got to do with why I haven't seen her for _weeks_?"

I nod again. The woman beckons me back in with a "Let's discuss this inside". She takes her gloves off and wipes her hands on her legs. Kakarot has followed and is leaning against a wall. They are both staring at me and surprised when I twist my hands together. Me? Stressed? Not in a million years.

"She's been sick. She was pregnant and we didn't know it and...

- She lost the baby?

- ... yes. Now she won't speak and I don't know how to make her eat. She's really thin."

Chichi narrows her eyes:

"Why didn't you come earlier?

- ...

- For God's sake Vegeta! Your wife has just had a miscarriage and she's starving!! WHY DIDN'T YOU COME?!"

I can't meet her eyes for the shame.

"Right. First things first. Go shopping Goku.

- But Bulma's hurt, she needs her friends! What good is a new dress...

- A dress?! You don't even know her size! No, go shopping for food! Bulma's the one who does all the shopping and I doubt Vegeta can handle such a complex task! They probably don't have anything left and that's why he came!

- That's not true.

- Then why! Did the gravity room break?! Would you have come if Bulma still cooked?

- Chichi...

- Go do the damn shopping!!

- What...

- The basics! Rice, vegetables, meat, fruits, ANYTHING!!"

Kakarot whimpers and flees before the savage wrath of his mate.

"As for YOU, you can damn well get me there."

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**And here a little alternate universe buds off.** **I can't promise anything for the next update but now I know where I'm going it should be up by the next month. Sorry you had to wait so long and thank you if you actually stuck by this fic. ;**


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